Animal rights activists who invade farms to stage protests will be hit with huge new fines in measures announced by Australia’s south-eastern state government after they were branded as ‘domestic terrorists’ by the region’s deputy leader.

The penalties follows a series of demonstrations and direct action staged by vegan activists on private farms and abattoirs in recent months.

Prime minister Scott Morrison recently pledged to introduce national legislation to crack down on animal rights activists invading private properties.

India successfully launched its second lunar mission one week after halting the initial scheduled blast due to a technical snag.

The spacecraft has entered the Earth’s orbit and will stay there for 23 days before beginning a series of manoeuvres, taking it into lunar orbit.

India hopes the $154 million mission will be the first to land on the Moon’s south pole, also making it the fourth country to land on the Moon’s surface.

Turkish authorities rounded up and deported hundreds of Syrian refugees in recent weeks in one of the harshest crackdowns on the refugees in Turkey since the beginning of the civil war.

After being detained, the refugees were reportedly sent back to areas in northern Syria which are plagued by instability and violence.

The mass deportations signalled a shift in Turkey which more recently moved to stem the migrant flows into the country by tightening security along the frontier and increasingly limiting the movements of Syrians within Turkey.

The Federal Government’s Aged Care Commission fielded four complaints about Queensland Nursing Homes in 2016 and 2017 following the deaths of two elderly residents.

According to the Coroners report ‘all the complaints revealed similar themes in relation to falls resulting in serious injuries, consultation and communication, clinical assessment and health and personal care’.

Families of the former residents describe instances where their loved ones were ‘frequently left in faeces’ and ignored or forgotten about by staff. 

Noosa local council has become the first in Queensland and 27th in Australia to announce a climate emergency. 

The declaration, unanimously endorsed by council, comes with a target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions locally by 2026 as well as planning for severe weather events and storm surges.

According to Mayor Tony Wellington, coastal communities like Noosa on the northern end of the Sunshine Coast, are “particularly vulnerable to impacts of a changing climate.

Australia has been given another chance to transfer refugees from Manus Island in a renewed offer from New Zealand to resettle 150 people.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says her government remains willing to accept the refugees on humanitarian grounds, confirming the number of places during her visit to Australia last Friday.

Tourism Western Australia has dropped celebrity chef George Calombaris from its new advertising campaign after he was fined for underpaying staff almost $8 million.

The Fair Work Ombudsman last week fined the Masterchef judge and his Made Establishment company $200,000 and ordered he back-pay hundreds of current and former staff.

Tourism WA managing director, Brodie Carr, says the ads featuring Mr Calombaris have been suspended, although the campaign “Create Your Own Gourmet Escape in WA” with Masterchef will continue.

Leaked documents have revealed that Chinese tech giant Hauwei helped the North Korean government build and maintain the country’s commercial wireless network.

The internal documents were obtained by the Washington post from a former Huawei employee who considered the information to be in the public’s interest.

Russian campaigners have said Yelena Grigoryeva, a woman found murdered with multiple stab wounds had received threats over her LGBT rights activism.

Authorities found the body of the 41-year-old victim in Saint Petersburg on Sunday.

Acquaintances said Yelena’s name was on a list of LGBT activists published by a recently blocked Russian website that called on people to take vigilante action against them.